On Tuesday, National Agency for European Educational Programmes and Mobility Acting Director Ana Mihajlov met Education and Science Minister Vesna Janevska.
In a press-release, the Ministry said the Agency’s new management would continue the implementation of Erasmus, the European Solidarity Corps, and several other European programmes and networks for education and mobility. Mihajlov, who comes from the ranks of employees, has experience in the area of over 15 years, it was added.
“Mihajlov voiced an assurance that the institution would continue to consistently respect European principles of operations in implementing education and mobility programme, and bring benefits of them closer to as many students, teachers, citizens’ associations, and other actors of the education system as possible”, it was added in the press-release.
Janevska stressed that the Agency’s activities were an exceptionally important part of the state’s efforts to integrate the national education system into the European education space. However, SDSM had previously alleged Mihajlov was a suspect in an OLAF investigation.
The head of the opposition party’s youth organisation (SDMM), Jovica Jankovic, stated at a press-conference that Mihajlov had been appointed, on 1 August, without transparency and without consultations with the EU. As he explained, all of that’s happening after the previous ad for the position was abolished for mysterious reasons.
“Now, the local elections are starting and, most importantly, the investigation into cases that OLAF submitted to the Macedonian Prosecutor’s Office is finishing” he noted.
Jankovic also presented an OLAF report, dated 2023, allegedly showing grounded suspicion of misuse of over two million euros in 2016, when Nikola Gruevski was the PM. The report identifies over 50 physical persons and legal entities in Macedonia and five EU members that were part of an alleged “VMRO[-DPMNE] scheme”.
Allegedly, through internal staff at the Agency, information on applicants and evaluators would leak, while an external company would run projects for over 15 schools, which is a violation of grant deals. In response, however, VMRO-DPMNE said there was full coordination with the EU office.
Also, the ruling party pointed to the case of Lidija Dimova, who, during SDSM’s time in power, “as Director of the Agency, abused office and embezzled, together with two other persons, around 20 million denars”.